Joe Mazzulla Impressed By Little-Known Big Man After Celtics Preseason

The Boston Celtics wrapped up their preseason auditions with a blowout victory over the Charlotte Hornets on Thursday night, giving the organization a better idea of who to roll with for the Opening Night roster.

The multiweek grind ahead of the 2023-24 campaign opened the door for a few dark-horse contributors to showcase themselves, including center Neemias Queta, who the C’s signed to a two-way deal in September.

Queta, 24, shot a perfect 6-for-6 during the preseason finale, scoring 12 points while grabbing seven rebounds and a steal in just 13 minutes on the floor.

“I thought he’s done a great job of picking up our defensive schemes,” Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla told reporters during practice Friday, per a video from CLNS. “Our fives are really, really important in our defense because of the versatility that they have and the different matchups that we have, and he’s done a really good job of that. Just got to continue to get better.”

Throughout Boston’s 4-1 run in preseason play, Queta showed potential in playing a much-needed front-court depth role. He averaged 11.3 points and 9.7 rebounds in three games. Therefore, considering the Celtics have an elite (but questionable) front court, keeping Queta around might be a go.

Last season, Al Horford, who presumably will play behind Kristaps Porzingis off the bench, was most valuable when scoring from the perimeter, shooting a career-best 44.6% from 3-point range. Plus, at 37 years of age, Horford can’t keep up in the interior as he used to, so having Queta take on the workload of crashing the glass could help.

So far, Queta’s survived the first rollout of roster cuts while fellow center Wenyen Gabriel got waived in order to cut the roster down to 15 players.